The New Year’s Day's bowl action was exceedingly entertaining with plenty of highlights from the six-game slate.

For some conferences, though, the day was not a fun-filled affair. Wisconsin's loss to Stanford in the Rose Bowl capped a disastrous day for the Big Ten. Northwestern was the lone victor for the league in five Jan. 1 games, and for the entire bowl season, the conference went 2-5.

SN'S NEW YEAR'S DAY COVERAGE

YOU MAY HAVE MISSED ...

Orange Bowl: Florida State 31, Northern Illinois 10 (recap). Florida State pulls away in the fourth quarter to grab the win, which is the first BCS win for the Seminoles since 2000.

Rose Bowl: Stanford 20, Wisconsin 14 (recap). A Curt Phillips INT with less than three minutes left proves costly to the Badgers. Barry Alvarez loses his first Rose Bowl (and the Badgers their third straight), while the Cardinal win the Granddaddy without Andrew Luck at QB. Greenberg: Stanford grinds out victory

Capital One Bowl: Georgia 45, Nebraska 31. (recap). Both sides had their share of big plays in a wildly entertaining contest, but Bulldogs made more of them.

Gator Bowl: Northwestern 34, Mississippi State 20: (recap). Wildcats' nine-game bowl winless streak is over, and it is the program's first bowl win since the 1949 Rose Bowl.

Heart of Dallas Bowl: Oklahoma State 58, Purdue 14: (recap). Win gives the Cowboys eight victories on the season. Not bad after using three quarterbacks this season and losing Brandon Weeden and Justin Blackmon to the NFL.

PREVIEWING THE REMAINING GAMES

Jan. 2

Sugar Bowl: Florida (11-1) vs. Louisville (10-2), 8:30 p.m. (ESPN). We provide three keys for each team in this matchup in the Big Easy.

Cotton Bowl: Texas A&M (10-2) vs. Oklahoma (10-2), 8 p.m. (FOX). It's our first look at Johnny Manziel since he was seen golfing with the Jonas brothers. How will he react, and how will the Sooners do in stopping him?